Busch wins the All-Star

Steve Addington is currently the crew chief for the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge, driven by Kurt Busch. It was just a short period ago that Addington was the crew chief for Kurt’s younger Kyle over at Joe Gibbs Racing. Addington is well known for his cool demeanor with the younger Busch but during the Sprint All-Star race Kurt Busch had an ill handling car and a younger brother that was the contender, challenging for the win. Kurt hit the wall a couple of times and Addington made adjustments just prior to the final segment that seemed to bring the Dodge to life.

In the media center after the race Busch said, “It’s an unbelievable experience. It’s something that you sit there and you look at the greats that have won this race, the ones that have had so many years go by in between the wins, just to have an opportunity to go for it tonight, I felt like our Penske Dodge was right where it needed to be at the end.”

Busch passed Denny Hamlin for the lead with 7 laps remaining in the 100 lap event and held off a hard charging Martin Truex for the win. Hamlin had clearly aggravated his Joe Gobs Racing team mate Kyle earlier in the race when it appeared that Hamlin blocked his teammate causing him to hit the wall. It was just a few laps later that Kyle’s right front appeared to blow sending him into the wall. Kyle parked his wrecked car directly behind the No. 11 hauler and charged into the truck after the incident.

Afterwards Hamlin, who finished 4th said, “We talked about it and basically Kyle was just frustrated, he felt like he had a really good car. Me, I just came from the back with no practice and got back to the front where we needed to be and I felt like if I gave up the lead right there then I was going to give up the win. I don’t think Kyle would do anything different if he was in my situation. It’s just when you’re the leader, my feeling is that you’ve got the whole race track. If a guy is to the outside then that’s when you need to hold your line.”

Joey Logano finished in 3rd place even after contact with Mark Martin during the start of the final ten-lap segment triggering a huge melee that also collected previous winners Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and Martin.

Earlier in the night Truex won the Sprint Showdown which allowed him to be eligible for the race and Gregg Biffle finished second which also qualified him to for the All-Star race. Carl Edwards was the fans choice for the “fan vote”.

Busch won $ 1 million for his efforts.

After the win Addington said, “I have never worked for anybody like him. I tried to figure out his emotions and stuff like that, and I just let it be now. I learned he’s going to get all he can out of a race car.”